Marketing
How Small Businesses Can Get New Customers and Sell More
24 Ways to Thank Your Customers and Employees
It’s almost Thanksgiving, but gestures of gratitude — especially those you extend to your customers and employees — should not be reserved for the month of November. Here are 24 …
Give Thanks … and Build Your Business
Shortly after she moved to Newburyport, Mass., in 2009, Erica Holthausen got a haircut at a local salon. A week later, she received a thank-you note and two $10 gift …
6 Tips for Creating Eye-Catching Window Displays
Window shopping dates back to ancient Rome, when Lucius Annaeus Seneca recommended that Roman merchants fill their windows with merchandise [PDF]. The challenge, both then and now, is to present …
11 Black Friday Marketing Tips for Your Small Business
For many U.S. retailers, the day after Thanksgiving is the biggest shopping event of the year. As a small business, you may not be able to offer deep discounts like …
How to Appear Social Media-Savvy Even When You’re Not
Has your business Facebook page become neglected? Is your company’s Twitter account sitting dormant, unable to surpass the triple-digit mark in followers? Do you have just three lonely photos on …
4 Steps to Quickly Create a Cyber Monday Marketing Campaign
Cyber Monday can be as much of a boon to online merchants as Black Friday is to traditional ones. Small businesses that sell goods and services via the web can …
In the Trenches: Customer Relationship Management
When you book travel for a living, you naturally have to hold on to a lot of customer data. After all, the federal government requires us to provide a traveler’s …
5 Ways to Make Your Small Business Look Bigger
If you think your small business can’t land those large corporate or government contracts, think again. Small business owners across the country routinely service large contractors, but to do it, …
Facebook Fuels Sales for Small Businesses
With less than two months on Facebook, toy company CharlieDog and Friends is typically selling $500 to $1,000 in product per day — the bulk of its online sales — …
How Business Etiquette Can Give You a Competitive Edge
You’re an expert in your field. You offer excellent value and prices. You wage highly effective marketing campaigns. But do you make time to practice basic business etiquette? You should, …
How to Improve Your Business Writing
The ability to write well may not rank high among your priorities, but communicating effectively with employees, suppliers, customers, and prospective clients is critically important for small-business owners. Think of …
In the Trenches: Refining the Sales Pitch
With Hurricane Sandy messing with flight schedules this week, we’ve been busy. We’ve received many urgent-assistance calls from potential new clients who needed help reaching their destinations, despite the storm; …
Turn Election Day into Sales for Your Small Business
As American voters cast their ballots between now and Nov. 6 to elect the next U.S. president (and decide other pertinent political issues), savvy small-business owners are using the media …
Zach Hoffman on How to Manage Your Online Reputation
“Online reputation management is key to any business, small or large,” says Zach Hoffman (pictured), founder and CEO of Exults, an online marketing company. Truer words were never spoken. A …
Seattle Moms Succeed in Seafood by Keeping It Simple
When Tina Montgomery’s husband began working for a seafood distribution company, T.H. Seafood, the family was suddenly awash in high-quality, fresh fish, a bounty they shared freely with their friends. One …
